Family Practitioners Specialist Reference Group

For those members specialising in family law

Thank you to the members who have signed up to form part of this specialist reference group. If you are not a member, but wish to join, please email familypractitioners@cilex.org.uk with your full name (as you are registered with us) and your membership number.

Practice advice

At CILEx we do our best to provide our members with as much advice and guidance as we can for our members looking to, or those who are already working in Family Law. Our Practice Advice page is a great place to start if you have any questions or queries. If you can't find the answer you're looking for, or would like further guidance or advice, please get in touch with the membership contact centre via practiceadvice@cilex.org.uk or by calling 01234 845777.

Active engagement work

CILEx is regularly working on behalf of our members on a variety of issues. Below is some of our ongoing work for which we would like to engage with the Family Practitioners Specialist Reference Group in order to gain greater perspective and evidence from those working in Family Law.

CILEx would like to encourage members of this SRG to respond to the consultation below. We would also appreciate it if you could provide us with your comments, views or submissions by emailing them to us at familypractitioners@cilex.org.uk.

The Government is seeking views on proposals for introducing coronial investigations of stillbirth cases in England and Wales. This consultation has been prepared jointly by the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Care and is an important step towards delivering the Government’s commitment to reduce the rate of stillbirths.

In addition to introducing greater transparency to the way in which stillbirths are investigated, the Government’s proposals would ensure that bereaved parents are involved at all stages of the investigation, and that any learning that can be taken from such investigations is disseminated across the health system to help prevent future avoidable stillbirths.

At the same time as the Government has been developing its proposals, a Private Member’s Bill, Tim Loughton MP’s Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc) Bill, has made its way through Parliament. The Bill is now subject to its Royal Assent* and will place a duty on the Secretary of State to make arrangements for the preparation and publication of a report on whether, and if so how, coroners should investigate stillbirths.

The Bill also provides a power for the Lord Chancellor to make provision, through secondary legislation, for stillbirth investigations by coroners if, following publication of that report, this is considered appropriate.

HMCTS Engagement Survey

HMCTS is conducting a perception survey to inform and improve how it communicates with court users.

As part of its on-going court modernisation programme, HMCTS are seeking views of those who use, and work within, the justice system. HMCTS has commissioned BMG Research to carry out a detailed piece of research to inform and improve how it communicates with you.

We would encourage you to take the time to complete the online survey below. It should take around 15 minutes to complete.

The deadline for completing this short survey is 10 May 2019. Your responses will be treated anonymously and in the strictest confidence. HMCTS will not be able to identify you from the information you provide. BMG Research abides by the Market Research Society Code of Conduct and data protection laws at all times. You can find out more information about how BMG surveys and what they do with the information they collect in the BMG Privacy Notice.

Previous work

CILEx continues to develop and establish itself as a fundamental aspect of the legal services industry. We hope that the Family Practitioners Specialist Reference Group grows with us.

We have consulted with the Family Practitioners Specialist Reference Group on a number of occasions in order to provide our work with greater amounts of evidence. Examples of our work can be found below, some of which includes direct references so our SRG engagement that proves to be increasingly valuable as we engage more with those in the legal services market: